Produced in 1989 by Talking History contributing producer David Isay to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots In New York City, this documentary marked the 20th anniversary of the riots and is the first documentary--in any medium--about Stonewall. An excerpt from the Sound Portraits WWW site notes: "On Friday, June 27, 1969, eight officers from the public morals section of the first division New York City Police Department pulled up in front of the Stonewall Inn, one of the city's largest and most popular gay bars. At the time, the vice squad routinely raided gay bars. Patrons always complied with the police, frightened by the prospect of being identified in the newspaper. But this particular Friday night at the Stonewall Inn was different. It sparked a revolution, and a hidden subculture was transformed into a vibrant political movement. What began with a drag queen clobbering her arresting officer soon escalated into a full-fledged riot, and modern gay activism was born."

Segment 2: "A Year in the Life: Beginning the Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Albany New York, 1987-88"

The Stonewall Riots brought national attention to the struggle for lesbian and gay rights; however, most legislative initiatives originated in city councils and state legislatures as a result of grassroots efforts. This work looks at the the political and policy history of gay rights legislation in one upstate New York community. Stephanie Madnick, a doctoral student in the University at Albany History Department, produced A Year in the Life as a project for History 530R, Producing Historical Documentaries for Broadcast and Internet Radio. It is part of her ongoing research into how the gay and lesbian community in Albany, NY learned to operate in the world of legislative and machine politics, and how, in a city with the longest running Democratic machine in American history, the emergence of gay rights activists into the political arena fundamentally altered party politics .

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June 22, 2000Segment 1: "The NAACP: the First Fifty Years."

The NAACP achieved its greatest prominence following the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education. By that time however, the organization had a fifty-year history of developing a strong regional presence and challenging segregation. Patricia Sullivan, Research Associate at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University, talks with Dialogue's George Liston Seay about the birth and development of the nation's largest civil rights organization.

Segment 2: "Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party"

In 1964 most people assumed that the Democratic National Convention would serve as little more than a coronation of Lyndon Johnson as the Democratic nominee for President. However, controversy erupted when the mostly black Mississippi Freedom Democratic party challenged the all white regular Mississippi Democratic delegation on the convention floor. This piece by contributing producer Dan Collison, chronicles their efforts.

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June 15, 2000Segment 1: "The Jewish Giant."

An audio biography on the life of Eddie Carmel (1936-1972). The Jewish Giant is the story of Jenny Carchman's search to uncover the story of her cousin, Eddie Carmel, the "Jewish Giant." Eddie was normal sized until he became a teenager, when he began to grow uncontrollably (he suffered from acromegaly, a glandular problem resulting from a tumor that had developed on his pituitary gland-- an incurable condition at the time). According to the Guiness Book of World Records, Eddie grew to be 8'9". As an adult, the only work he could find involved exploiting his freakishness. He starred in B-grade monster movies (The Brain that Wouldn't Die), made two 45 records (The Happy Giant and The Good Monster) and was billed in Ringling Brothers Circus at Madison Square Garden as the Tallest Man on Earth. Eddie died in 1972 at the age
of 36 in Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. His coffin
was custom made. Producer: Stacy Abramson; Narrator: Jenny Carchman (Eddie's cousin); Executive Producer: David Isay; Production Assistant: Meagan Howell; Music: Henry Sapoznik; and Peter Sokolow;
Editor: Gary Covino.

Segment 2: "Leaving Vietnam."

George Liston Seay, host of Dialogue interviews Larry Berman, author of Lyndon Johnson's War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam (1991) about his recent research on the end of the Vietnam War.

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June 8, 2000Segment 1: "Working-Class Feminism: The Other Women's Movement."

The years between suffrage an the 1970s were not blank pages in the history of feminism. Women in the labor movement advanced the cause of women's rights on the shop floor and in the union hallincreasing their achievements after World War II. Dorothy Sue Cobble, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, discusses the origins and success of working-class feminism with Dialogue's George Liston Seay.

Auburn University history professor Daniel Szechi comments on recent apologies by religious and political leaders for past wrongs: Pope John Paul II apologizes for the Crusades, the Inquisition, and for past Roman Catholic anti-semitism; British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the 1840s Irish famine; and the Aetna Insurance Company for insuring slave owners against possible slave escapes.

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June 1, 2000Segment 1: ""Treasures of the Russian North."

There is an ageless Russia, steeped in a thousand years of history, and powerfully reflected in the great treasures of Russian architecture. Some of the most vivid examples of that achitecture - particularly churches and monasteries are found in the frigid reaches of the northern territory. William Brumfield, photographer and professor of Slavic Studies at Tulane University, takes Dialogue host George Liston Seay on an oral tour.

Segment 2: "Forgotten History: Women in Baseball"

Many assume that women's active participation in sports, particularly team sports, is a recent occurence. Gai Ingham Berlage, Iona College sociology professor and author of Women in Baseball: the Forgotten History (Praeger, 1994), dispels that notion as she talks with Creighton University's Eileen Dugan.

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May 25, 2000Segment 1: "Vietnam in Historical Perspective."

Dennis Mihelich, Creighton University, discusses the Vietnam War and its continuing legacy with Andrew Jon Rotter, Chair of the Colgate University History Department and editor of Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Vietnam War Anthology (Scholarly Resources, 1999).

Segment 2: "A Conscientious Objector Reflects on Memorial Day"

Joseph Volk, Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee On National Legislation, talks about his decision to become a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and how this influences his observance of Memorial Day.

Segment 3: "Confrontation at Harvard-1969."

In 1969 the Students for a Democratic Society and the Harvard University Administration clashed repeatedly. This conflict culminated in a student takeover of University Hall on April 9, 1969.
Harvard student radio station WHRB-FM recorded these events from April 8-18, 1969. Produced from materials provided by the WHRB News Department and distributed by Buddah Records, this excerpt is a part of that chronicle.

Segment 4: "A History of the Peace Corps."

Creighton University's Eileen Dugan interviews Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, of San Diego State University, on the history of the Peace Corps. Hoffman is the author of All You Need is Love: The Peace Corp and the Spirit of the 1960s, (Harvard University Press, 1998).

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May 18, 2000Segment 1: "Daniel Walkowitz on Workers in 19th Century Cohoes, New York."

NYU historian Daniel Walkowitz looks back at Cohoes labor history at a May Day Labor Forum held at the Cohoes Music Hall in Cohoes, New York, on May 1, 2000. Recorded by Susan McCormick.

Segment 2: "A Virtual May Day Rally." [Selection].

The first half of Mimi Rosenberg's and Ken Nash's creative production integrating the voices of labor--past and present. This "Virtual" May Day rally aired first on WBAI in New York, in celebration of May Day 2000. It's a wonderful example of how archival audio can be integrated with contemporary music, studio narrative, and recorded actualities to yield an engaging and engaged aural ode to labor.

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May 11, 2000"Ossie Davis Reads from 'John Brown: An Address by Frederick Douglas.'"

PART I

PART II

Actor and producer Ossie Davis pays tribute to John Brown and his legacy in this reading from Frederick Douglas' 1881 address on John Brown. Taped at the John Brown Lives! celebration at United Church of Christ, Elizabethtown, New York on May 5, 2000. The celebration commemorated the 200th Anniversary of John Brown's birth (on May 9th, 1800). Recorded by Gerald Zahavi. Our thanks to Ossie Davis and Martha Swan for making this recording possible.

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May 4, 2000Segment 1: "Quiz Shows and Quiz Show Scandals."

Dennis Mihelich interviews William Boddy, on the faculty of the Speech Department of Baruch College, CUNY, and author of Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics (1992) about the infamous $64,000 Question quiz show scandal of the 1950s.

Segment 2: "The Golden Age of Radio."

Bryan LeBeau interviews Michele Hilmes, Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, on the golden age of radio. Hilmes is the author of Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952 (University of Minnesota, 1997).

Segment 3: "The Shadow Knows."

A commentary by Judith Jackson Fossett, Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Southern California, on the famous radio dramatic series, The Shadow as a reflection of 1930s-50s foreign policy and public opinion.

Segment 4: "A History of [U.S.] Child-Rearing Manuals."

Dennis Mihelich interviews Julia Grant, author of Raising Baby by the Book: The Education of American Mothers (Yale University Press, 1998). Grant is Associate Professor of Social Relations at James Madison College, Michigan State University.

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April 27, 2000Segment 1: "The Emperor's Body in 18th Century China."

Produced at the University at Albany. Prof. Jennifer Rudolph, of SUNY-Albany, interviews NYU Chinese historian Angela Zito about ritual and power in imperial China.

Segment 2: "Mississippi Jews."

A short documentary, by contributing producer David Isay, on the Jewish community of Greenwood, Mississippi. Recorded in November of 1991 and first aired on National Public Radio's All Things Considered in December of 1991.

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April 20, 2000Segment 1: "The Gallup 14."

From KUNM in Albequerque, New Mexico, Marcos Martinez interviews author Gary Stuart about his recent work of historical fiction that chronicles events in 1930's Gallup New Mexico, then a major US coal-mining area. Drawing on historical documents and interviews with local residents, Stuart tells the stories of a miner's strike, a riot, the murder of a local sheriff, and a famous trial that tried to assign blame for the killing.

Segment 2: "Speaking Dolgan."

The indigenous languages of many of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Taimyro region of Siberia, an area twice the size of California, are fast disappearing. Dialogue host George Liston Seay talks with cultural anthropologist John Ziker of Indiana University of Pennsylvania about one of these groups, the Dolgan people, and the preservation of their language and culture..

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April 13, 2000Segment 1: "The Changing Face of Iran."

George Liston Seay interviews Robin Wright, author of The Last great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran. Together, they explore the social and political evolution of Iran since its revolution of twenty years ago.

Segment 2: "The Story of Eve: 'Bad' Girls in History."

Creighton University's Eileen Dugan looks at the influence of the biblical story of Eve on popular perceptions of women through the ages with Pamela Norris, author of Eve: A Biography.

Segment 3: "The New Creationism."

Robert T. Pennock, author of Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creation, offers an historically-informed commentary on contemporary attempts to introduce creationism into public school curricula.

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April 6, 2000Segment 1: "Lost Revolutions."

Pete Daniel, curator in the Division of the History of Technology, the National Museum of American History, and author of Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s, discusses lost opportunities for an earlier and more rapid civil rights revolution in the American South with Dialogue host George Liston Seay.

Segment 2: "The Roots of Austrian Political Culture."

Bryan LeBeau interviews Princeton historian Anson Rabinbach, author of In the Shadow of Catastrophe: German Intellectuals Between Apocalypse and Enlightenment (1997), about the WWII and post-War roots of contemporary Austrian political culture.

Produced by Jane Ladouceur, a member of the University at Albany Talking History production team. Our thanks to the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, for providing archival audio resources for this documentary.

Segment 2: "Women, Work, and Brewing in Medieval England"

Bryan LeBeau talks with Judith Bennett, author of Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600.

Although the aggressive intentions of Nazi Germany were clear by the mid-1930s, British and French policy makers rejected the idea of a defense pact with Soviet Russia. Dialogue host George Liston Seay talks with Michael Jabara Carley, author of 1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II, about how British and French attitudes toward Soviet Russia affected Nazi actions.

Lurid images of sex and violence were common in early 1930's films. Creighton University's Eileen Dugan discusses these films, and subsequent efforts to sanitize Hollywood productions in the 1930s, with film historian Thomas Doherty, author of Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934.

Segment 3: "Censorship and Free Expression in American Films."

Robert Sickels, Professor of film history at Whitman College and film and television review editor for Film and History, offers this comment on post-code Hollywood filmmaking.

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March 17, 2000Segment 1: El Salvador's Bloody History.

A talk with Rev. Dean Brackley, S.J., on the 10-year anniversary of the death of six Jesuits in El Salvador. Originally aired in November of 1999.
Includes an op-ed by Diana Jean Schemo of the New York Times on her recent examination of military dictatorships in Central America.

Thomas Hine, author of the Rise and Fall of the American Teenager (1999). Creighton comment.

Segment 4: "The Riot That Remade A City."

Comment by Kevin Baker on "The Riot That Remade A City," from Baker's November 1999 American Heritage article on Irish immigrants in 1840s New York City and the the Astor Place Riot. Also, Bryan LeBeau reads the words of an English knight written in 1394 when the knight accompanied King Richard III on his invasion of Ireland.

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March 9, 2000Segment 1: Film and History.

Eileen Dugan interviews Robert A. Rosenstone, professor of History at the California Institute of Technology, on Film and History. Rosenstone is the author of Revisioning History: Film and the Constructions of a New Past (1995) and Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History (1996).

Segment 2: "Atomic Bomb Cinema."

Bryan LeBeau talks with Jerome Shapiro, resident cinema studies scholar and professor on the faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan, on the influence of the atomic bomb in cinema.

Segment 3: "The Professor and the Madman."

Eileen Dugan interviews Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (1999), on Dr. W. C. Minor's contribution to the Oxford English Dictionary; John Willinsky, author of Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED (1995), offers a commentary on the significance of the OED.

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March 2, 2000Segment 1: Dan Collison's "Freedom Summer."

A look back at one of the most famous summers of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Jon Cruz, author of Culture on the Margins: The Black Spiritual and the Rise of American Cultural Interpretation (1999), offers his views on the "discovery" of black spiritual music by 19th-century white elites.

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February 24, 2000Segment 1: "Race, the Military, and Federal Policy in World War II."

In this segment from KUNM, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Marcos Martinez talks with MIT political science professor Daniel Kryder, author of Divided Arsenal: Race and the American State During World War II.

From Creighton University, Village Voice writer Peter Braunstein comments on the origins of disco in World War II Paris.

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February 17, 2000Segment 1: "A Conversation With George Kennan."

George Kennan, former US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, wrote the famous "X" article that became a central document in the composition of America's Cold War containment strategy. In this Dialogue interview with George Liston Seay, Ambassador Kennan explains that this strategy was not precisly what he had in mind, offers his views on East-West relations then and now, and gives his opinion of modern American society.

Segment 2: "Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America."

Dennis Mihelich talks with Yeshiva University history professor Ellen Schrecker, author of Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America.

Segment 3: "Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold-War America."

Historian Richard M. Fried, University of Illinois, Chicago and most recently the author of The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming: Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold-War America, discusses some of the public activities designed to rekindle patriotism and civic activism during the Cold War.

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February 10, 2000Segment 1: "Braddock: City of Magic."

Filmmaker Tony Buba has chronicled his hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania in a series of 12 documentaries. Producer Dan Collison follows Buba through the streets of Braddock, the prototypical post-industrial rust belt town, whereif you listen closelyyou can almost hear the sounds of early immigrants passing the hours before they return to the mills.

Segment 2: "The Bathroom: an American Epic."

From his recent book, The Comforts of Home: The American House and the Evolution of Modern Convenience, social historian and author Merritt Ierley talks with Creighton University's Bryan LeBeau about how bringing the water closet into the house changed our lives.

Segment 3: "19th Century Gun Control: Myth and Romance."

A short commentary by Ross Collins, North Dakota State University, Fargo, suggests that gun control is not a recent concern.

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February 3, 2000Segment 1: "King Leopold's Ghost."

Dialogue host George Liston Seay talks with Adam Hochschild about the discoveries Hochschild made while researching his book, King Leopold's Ghosta chronicle of the oppression and torture unleashed on the native population in the Congo region of Africa by King Leopold of Belgium as he established a foreign empire for his country.

Segment 2: "Fasting Girls: A History of Anorexia Nervosa."

Creighton University's Dennis Mihelich talks with Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor in the Department of Human Development and in the Women's Studies Program at Cornell University. Brumberg, a social and cultural historian, offers an historical perspective on anorexia nervosa as a modern disease and explores the changing historical experience of girls and their bodies as described in more than 100 diaries written since the 1830s. That research is the basis of her most recent work, Body Projects: An Intimate History of American Girls.

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January 27, 2000"Labor On the Move: Current Perspectives and Historical Contexts."

PART I

PART II

A talk by Professor Alex Lichtenstein. Recorded on December 4, 1999 at the Deerfield Progressive Forum, Deerfield Beach, Florida, produced and edited at the Talking History production center at the University at Albany. Professor Lichenstein's entire talk is presented here, however it is divided into two segments for easier listening.

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January 20, 2000Segment 1: "Thoughts on Teaching History"

George Liston Seay talks with Vernon Burton, Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign about teaching history.

Segment 2: "Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light"

Creighton University's Eileen Dugan interviews historian Tyler Stovall, author of Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light, a history of African American artists and musicians, as well as black academics, scientists, and businessmen who found new lives in
Paris from WW I through the student uprisings in the 1960s.

Segment 4: "Jazz in American Cinema"

From Creighton University, a short piece by Krin Gabbard, author of Jammin' at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema, about how jazz history and important jazz musicians have beeen portrayedand are about to be portrayed in American movies.

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January 13, 2000Segment 1: "Three Lives for Mississipi."

From Bruderhof Radio, produced by Andrew Zimmerman. Interviews with surviving friends and family members of three civil rights workersJames Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwernerwho were murdered in Mississippi in 1964.

Segment 2: "Martin Luther King, Jr"

Creighton University's Dennis Mihelich interviews Stanford University history professor Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King Project and editor of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Segment 3: "The Religious Roots of American Radicalism"

From Creighton University, Professor James Farrell, St. Olaf's College, offers a perspective on the religious roots of the modern civil rights movementand American radicalism.